Large-scale survey of Chinese precollege students’ epistemological beliefs about physics: A progression or a regression?

Ping Zhang,Lin Ding

doi:10.1103/physrevstper.9.010110

Abstract

This paper reports a cross-grade comparative study of Chinese precollege students' epistemological beliefs about physics by using the Colorado Learning Attitudes Survey about Sciences (CLASS). Our students of interest are middle and high schoolers taking traditional lecture-based physics as a mandatory science course each year from the 8th grade to the 12th grade in China. The original CLASS was translated into Mandarin through a rigorous transadaption process, and then it was administered as a pencil-and-paper in-class survey to a total of 1318 students across all the five grade levels (8--12). Our results showed that although in general student epistemological beliefs became less expertlike after receiving more years of traditional instruction (a trend consistent with what was reported in the previous literature), the cross-grade change was not a monotonous decrease. Instead, students at grades 9 and 12 showed a slight positive shift in their beliefs measured by CLASS. Particularly, when compared to the 8th graders, students at the 9th grade demonstrated a significant increase in their views about the conceptual nature of physics and problem-solving sophistication. We hypothesize that both pedagogical and nonpedagogical factors may have contributed to these positive changes. Our results cast light on the complex nature of the relationship between formal instruction and student epistemological beliefs.

Highlights

In the past two decades the physics education research community has developed a growing interest in students’ epistemological ideas about physics—students’ beliefs about knowledge and learning [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Students who view physics as a large collection of disconnected facts or formulas being passively dispensed from experts and irrelevant to their daily lives are likely to study this subject by using rote memorization and algorithmic approaches
Those who view physics as centered on a few governing fundamental principles and consider learning as making sense of these principles through connections to the physical world are more comfortable with building a deeper conceptual understanding without excessively relying on formalism

Summary

Introduction

In the past two decades the physics education research community has developed a growing interest in students’ epistemological ideas about physics—students’ beliefs about knowledge and learning [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Students who view physics as a large collection of disconnected facts or formulas being passively dispensed from experts and irrelevant to their daily lives are likely to study this subject by using rote memorization and algorithmic approaches. Those who view physics as centered on a few governing fundamental principles and consider learning as making sense of these principles through connections to the physical world are more comfortable with building a deeper conceptual understanding without excessively relying on formalism.

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion